Science Movement organized its Junior Science Camp 2017-18 from 23 rd to 24 th of May 2018 at Bhubaneswar and invited a team from Indroda Fossil Park, Gujarat to display rare fossils including dinosaur eggs in this Camp. The 3- member Gujarat team was headed by Ms. Kusum Suthar, and was sent by GEER Foundation, Gujarat (a Govt. of Gujarat organization) on request of Science Movement. Science Movement requested GEER Foundation to allow display of the same fossils in the Regional Museum of Natural History(RMNH), Bhubaneswar for the general public after the Camp was over. It also proposed RMNH to take advantage of this rare opportunity. While GEER Foundation approved of the request, RMNH also showed keen interest to make this display possible. Accordingly, Science Movement sent the Gujarat team to RMNH where the team displayed the fossils from 24 th to 25 th of May. This is a first of its kind collaboration between three different agencies in public interest, courtesy Science Movement.
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Science Movement Science Movement under the convenership of Sri Jyoti Ranjan Tripathy organized the Junior Science Camp for students of classes VI to VIII(subsequently promoted to respective classes) from 23rd to 24th May 2018 at Bhubaneswar. On 23rd May the event took place primarily at IDCOL AUDITORIUM that was attended by more than 70 participants from different parts of the state despite an unfavourable weather. Addressing the House Mr. Bikash Rath, the Coordinator of Science Movement programme explained why the Camp has emphasized this time on science & discoveries in India. He said Indians also did and are still doing some concrete research in science & technology, but unfortunately our students hardly know about that since the text books normally teach about western scientists. He further said that while it is wrong to say that everything was known to our ancestors, it is also wrong at the same time to state that our ancestors knew nothing scientific. To supplement what Mr. Rath said Dr. Gaurab Gangopadhyay, Associate Professor, Bose Institute, Kolkata made a presentation on Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose and Plant Sensitivity Experiments, and showed through a sophisticated microscope certain plant dynamics at microscopic level which fascinated the students who got the opportunity to see the process under the microscope. This was followed by a presentation by Dr. Subhendu Pattanaik, Dy. Director, Pathani Samanta Planetarium on the instruments of Samata Chandrasekhara, the famous Odia astro-scientist. Dr. Pattnaik demonstrated how this famous naked eye astronomer made remarkable astro-scientific calculations (that are closer to modern scientific estimations) with his simple, hand-made instruments like Chapayantra and Manayantra. The post-lunch session was devoted to a presentation-cum-demonstration on fossils and dinosaurs. A team from Indroda Fossil Park, Gandhinagar managed by GEER Foundation displayed some rare fossils including dinosaurs eggs, and Ms. Kusumben explained the various species of dinosaurs including those fossilized in India. Her colleague Raijibhai then explained the fossils in display.. This was an extraordinary opportunity for students. In the evening the participants visited the Pathani Samanta Planetarium where they experienced a show on universe, and saw the replica of Samanta Chandrasekhara’s instruments. On 24th May the students were taken to Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture(CIFA) where they were explained how best are the traditionally cultured catfishes and snakehead fishes like sala, sheula, and magura, etc. not only because of their capacity to survive in lowest water levels(given the changing climatic conditions) but also because of their high nutritional value. They also visited the aquarium there with which the Camp was concluded. The Science Movement team headed by its Co-convener Sri Janmejay Mandal ensured necessary logistics arrangement for the convenience of the participants.
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Science Movement organized its second Science Camp from 21st to 25th December 2017 in the auditorium of IIT-Kharagpur Extension behind Hotel Swosti Premium, Jayadev Vihar, Bhubaneswar. The Camp was organized only for class IX & X students who belonged to the senior group of qualifiers of the Science Movement Aptitude Test(SMAT) held on 8th October 2017. The Camp for the junior group of qualifiers (classes VI, VII, and VIII) has been postponed to Summer-2018.
The Camp informally began with a registration-cum-welcome dinner on 20th evening, and formally started on 21st with 115 students. The number of girls who participated was about 30. They came from different parts of the state: Rourkela, Bargarh, Bhawanipatna, Berhampur, Balasore, Dhenkanal, Angul, Burla, and so on. The Camp was inaugurated by the Principal Secretary of Science & Technology Department, Govt. of Odisha Sri Nikunja Bihari Dhal, IAS in the presence of his co-inaugurators Dr. R.K.Vatsha, Dr. Joseph Nathan, Sri Jyoti Ranjan Tripathy, and Prof. Hadibandhu Patnaik.
Sri Sandeep Mohapatra, an enthusiastic well-wisher of Science Movement and currently a student of UM-DAE played a pivotal role in planning as well as facilitating the whole programme. He alongwith a student from IISER, Mohali Sri Anshuman Acharya inspired the participants by sharing own experiences.
Apart from some enlightening talks, the students were particularly excited and inspired by demonstrations on liquid nitrogen, action potential, and DNA extraction. Added to this excitement was the experience of evening sky observation with telescope on 24th at Institute of Physics, courtesy Dr. Ajit Mohan Srivastava, another patron of Science Movement.
Parents also jointed the Camp in the closing session followed by lunch, on 25th when certificates and medals were distributed. Students submitted their feedback in specified format which clearly confirmed their excitement, motivation, and learning from this Camp alongwith an expectation to avail similar opportunity, if possible, next year. Most of them found Sri Tapan K. Gandhi as their foremost role model as he came from a very ordinary background and did not study engineering or medicine, but his sincerity eventually took him to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology(USA), and what is most important is that instead of deciding to stay back in the US he chose to work in India, that too for the physically challenged people; and developed special gadgets for them so as to ease their life to some extent. He also combined engineering with medical science so as to help many blind people get a vision. And after all these he still remains a humble Odia and loves to speak in his mother tongue.
The Camp received generous support from various organizations such as IIT, Bhubaneswar; KIIT, Bhubaneswar; and our sponsor Odisha Hydro Power Corporation Ltd. While IIT, Bhubaneswar allowed to use the auditorium, KIIT allowed the participants to share its hostels free of cost as an extension of courtesy, thanks to its founder Sri Achyuta Samanta. Buses were arranged by Science Movement for transportation to and from the venue. Breakfast, lunch, evening snacks, and dinner were arranged at the venue itself.
Volunteers from VIDWAN CLASSES helped a lot in smooth facilitation of the event and even organized some entertainment programmes enjoyed by the participants.
Science Movement formally started in the year 2016 with a simple essay competition that could suggest the best potential candidates eligible for our first Science Camp. We had around 1000 applicants as against the limitation of accommodating maximum 100 students in the Camp for free. The students were asked to write an essay explaining the scientific concept they like the most and also why they like it. This way we could gauge their interest in the subject and evaluate whether or not they would be interested in the Camp's activities and also how much would they could benefit from the same. The essay helped us assess their attitude towards science.
The major event, i.e. the Science Camp was organized from 17th to 21st December 2017 at Hotel Suryansh, Bhubaneswar.
